 Collections from Lichfield
soon to be available at Stafford
We are delighted to announce
that the collections formerly held at Lichfield Record Office will be available
once again in their new home at Staffordshire Record Office from early May.
Look out for the announcement on our website and on social media. Some of the
collections will require advance notice for production because they are held at
our outstore and the online catalogue, Gateway to the Past, will show that in
due course. For those of you whose research has not yet brought you to
Stafford, we look forward to welcoming you in the coming months at
Staffordshire Record Office, where you will see some familiar faces from
Lichfield. Opening hours, a location map and information about parking are on
our website
The relocation of the Lichfield
Collections has brought to light some interesting items not previously
catalogued, such as this Burton map from World War Two showing civil defence
points including fire services, rest and feeding centres, public shelters,
first aid points and medical centres. This image shows a small portion of the
map. The base map used was an old Ordnance Survey map, by 1939 the Poor Law had
been abolished!
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Optical Illusions at Stafford Library
Over the Easter school holidays the Museum Team visited Stafford Library with objects from the collections that create optical illusions. Children were able to make a pocket mirror or a thaumatrope to take home. One young visitor loved looking at the old cameras because she had never seen them before. The adults enjoyed reminiscing about our 1970s Viewmaster.
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 Glebe Terrier for Abbots Bromley (B/V/6/A1)
New Place-Name Project at
Lichfield needs Volunteers
We are looking for volunteers
for our exciting new volunteering project based in Lichfield. The Staffordshire
Place-Names Project is run in partnership with the Institute for Name Studies (at Nottingham University) and the English Place-Name Society and aims to collect historic spellings
of place-names from original documents which will then form the basis of the
English Place-Name Society Survey of English Place-Names in Staffordshire. The
group will meet on Tuesdays from 10-12 at Lichfield Record Office and there
will be an introductory session, including a palaeography workshop, on Thursday
26th April. If you are interested in joining us or would like to
find out more please contact Jennifer Lewis
 Extract from account book for the Overseers of the Poor of Grindon (7614/1)
New Additions to the Collections
Another nice find in the
Moorlands! This is an account book for the Overseers of the
Poor of Grindon (7614/1). It contains very detailed accounts between 1817 and
1839 for all sorts of payment to people in need. These range from payments for
clothes or fuel, or to people out of work or injured, to labour and materials
for house repairs. At the front there is even a list of named fathers of
children born to single women. At the back there are also a few years of
churchwardens’ accounts. One of our volunteers has already tucked into its
juicy contents.
 Lending a Hand to Preserve the Past
Liberty Smith is a second year history student at Keele
University and is currently on a work placement at the Staffordshire Record Office. We asked her what made her opt for us?
"Being a resident
of Stafford my entire life, I was intrigued as to how the history of this town
and the surrounding county is preserved. My
main focus has been helping to update the record office’s
catalogue by providing summaries of transcriptions of letters in the Bradford Collection.
These are bundles of letters exchanged between members of the Bridgeman family who
resided at Weston Park in the early 19th century, including letters
from Orlando Bridgeman with the army in Spain and Portugal in the Peninsular
Wars and from Charles Bridgeman, who was in the navy, from around the world. This
is to help make the sources more accessible and understandable to anyone searching
the online catalogue for relevant subjects as diverse as medical complaints,
warfare and falling in love.
Aside from
this, I have also been looking at the roles of volunteers at the office, which
is an integral part of the Archive Service. I have enquired about what they do
and the projects they undertake that benefit the Record Office and its users.
The transcriptions I have been reading through were all done by a volunteer,
which goes to show the impact they have is massive. Overall, I have enjoyed my
time here and found it very interesting, but it has also shown me how important
places like this are when it comes to maintaining and preserving the history of
the county."
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